I'd forgotten this little gem was in there... This 1973 Soviet short has all the production shortcomings you would expect from such a film, produced by a handful of people on a budget of next to nothing, overseen by paranoid officials - and at first I found it just mildly entertaining, but it did win the Grand Prix at Cannes, and for once they seemed to know what they were doing. As many moons have passed, this film has really grown on me, and I can now see levels in it which render its primitive production irrelevant - or even, perhaps, nescessary.

A man is, without explanation, marooned on a tiny island. Several ships pass him by and he tries to flag them down, without success. Eventually he is passed by spy submarines, speedboats, container ships filled with cars, floating casinos, Interpol chasing thieves who've stolen a classical statue, party cruises, a battleship complete with military dignitaries who plant a flag, fire guns and disappear, a lumber ship which cuts his tree down, a ship which plants an oil rig on his tiny patch of land, and eventually, as his fame apparently spreads, by celebrities who want to be photographed with him, supermarket owners trying to sell him goods, scientists who measure his skull, and no end of other such things.

None of them, however, even look like rescuing him.

**** Spoilers ****

Eventually our castaway is 'rescued' - at least we assume so. A similarly dishevelled man swims by clutching a piece of wood and invites him to join him. They both swim off happily together.

*** End spoilers ***

The message may not be amazingly subtle, but subtle enough. Having been visited by every facet of consumerism, militarism, materialism, industry, frivolity, and every social instituion you can shake a stick at, our castaway is rescued by the simple humanity of another (not quite) hopeless person. Considering the paranoia of the Soviet authorities at the time, the idea that two ragged individuals were vastly more important than the might of The State must have been controversial. Yes, the cartoon pokes fun at western style consumerism, but also at the military and other things which could just as easily be construed as Russian.

Straining for 3.5, but maybe not quite. Well worth finding. It reminds me in some ways of Bruno Bozzetto's shorts, but perhaps it's too early for that to be more than coincidence.